Utada Hikaru - This Is The One

I really hope this is good, but the implications seem to be bad. Japan is normally in love with Utada but for some reason she only reached No.3 in the Oricon weekly charts having sold less than 100,000 copies (about 77,000). I was actually quite shocked to find that Utada hadn't had a No.1 single since Flavor of Life back in 2007 - I thought Prisoner of Love was a huge hit in Japan? Though I personally wasn't a huge fan of Prisoner of Love.

On and On - The beat started off quite well but then after a while it just got a bit annoying! It's an Ok track but I have to be honest half the time I didn't know what she was singing! She just merged with the music at times that I actually thought she was saying Japanese (correct me if I'm wrong cause she maybe speaking Japanese!)

Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence FYI- The lyrics didn't make sense to me! what was with all the "MP3 MP3 MP3". The music should have made this song a must listen but the lyrics put me off this song tbh. One comment, hearing these two songs you'd think Utada wasn't the fluent one in English compared with BoA!

Apple and Cinnamon - The song is Ok but I slightly dissapointed as I really liked Come Back to Me and was anticipating a lot, maybe a bit too much! It's Ok, I like the vocals but the song is just Ok.

Taking My Money Back - The intro just sounded way to similar to many other songs I've heard. I like Apple and Cinnamon better. I'm really worried that this album is going the wrong direction - it's just sounding a bit too generic.

This One - This song is wayyy too generic but I actually like this! Weird ain't I! It's not the best thing I've heard of Utada but for some reason I like this more than the previous tracks. Now that I think of it the flaw in Utada's album (currently) is that the music is way too generic whilst for BoA's album the music was way to overpowering. If only the two just merged together someway maybe we could have heard something truly special.

Automatic Part II - I'm not really liking this song. It's a song that I wouldn't particularly chose to listen to unless it was in a album.

Dirty Desire - I don't really have a strong opinion on this track - I really don't want to use the B word (don't worry it's not THE B Word it's the B word for music which ends in ORED!).

Poppin' - Ok I hate this song! Everything was just wrong! Ok I'm ashamed to say I actually skipped this!

Come Back to Me - Finally! Something I know I like! Personally I think Utada tried to hard to emulate the formula of this song with many of her other tracks in this album, but this is just a simple song which works. It has a nice tune and allows us to hear what is Utada's signature; her voice. Yet again I emphasize the simplicity of this song is what makes it work much better than the other tracks - Ok let me come back to earth, it's not fantastic but it's definitely my favourite track of "This is The One".

Me Muero - I like how it is different but it's way too late for a song like this, you can see how Utada tried to experiment more with the last few tracks, I think this one works compared to her other experiments. I think this is probably the 2nd best track.

I was going to compare BoA and Utada's offerings but I realized that would be way too difficult as they are polar opposites. Personally I'm slightly dissapointed but I think BoA's may have more lasting appeal compared to Utada's even though I'm normally a fan of the more emotional/ relaxing beats. Sadly this wasn't the one for Utada (pun intended!). Lets just hope Jolin Tsai, Ayumi Hamasaki, Kay Tse and Joey Yung's next albums don't disappoint.